US3532344A - Golf club and glove including coacting non-slip elements and grip positioning means - Google Patents

Description

Oct. 6, 1970 B MASSTAB 3,532,344

GOLF CLUB AND GLOVE INCLUDING COACTING NON-SLIP ELEMENTS AND GRIP POSITIONING MEANS Filed June 21, 1968 COINCIDENT WITH LINE Y-Y I N VE N TOR. fien bmwMossfab 3 v awk,

Af/omeys United States Patent 0.

3,532,344 GOLF CLUB AND GLOVE INCLUDING COACTING NON-SLIP ELEMENTS AND GRIP POSITIONING MEANS Benjamin Masstab, 168 Thunder Hill Drive, Stamford, Conn. 06902 Continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 553,134, May 26, 1966. This application June 21, 1968, Ser. No.

Int. Cl. A63b 53/14; A41d 19/00 US. Cl. 273-166 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A golf grip and glove are provided with especially shaped and located areas of the hook and loop component fabrics of a separable fabric fastener to improve gripping. The location and shape of the component fabric guides the users hand to an appropriate and proper grip. The remainder of the grip is an exposed conventional gripping surface for normal hand engagement. The shapes allow for maintenance of proper grip when the club is held in a shorter position for certain purposes.

This application is a continuation-in-part of my application Ser. No. 553,134 filed May 26, 1966 and now abandoned.

This invention relates to a device for promoting proper grip of a users hand with respect to a handle. As is well known, a proper grip is an essential element in the effective operation of athletic equipment. In particular, the players grip on the handle of a golf club is of utmost importance to the game. Slip or twist of the handle in the players hand will prevent accuracy. The present invention provides a means for preventing such slip or twist even when the handle is 'wet. Additionally, the ability to reproduce a grip found to be effective is of considerable interest to the players. Heretofore, it has not been readily possible to reproduce such favorable grip each time the handle is grasped without the expense of much practice time to develop the proper feel of the handle.

The present invention assists in assuring such proper and secure grip by providing simple and economical means for temporarily and adjustably associating a glove with a handle of a golf club. Both the glove and the handle are provided with self-attractive surfaces which permit the glove to be secured to the handle to prevent relative movement of the glove and handle.

The invention :will be described with reference to a golf club and glove although the invention is useful in other similar applications.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a view of the glove and golf grip showing how the grip is aligned with the gloved hand,

FIG. 2 is a view of the glove showing the shape and location of the glove mounted areas of separable fastener,

FIG. 3 shows the golf club gripped by the gloved hand,

FIG. 4 shows the shape of the separable fastener area which is to be afiixed to the golf club, and

FIG. 5 shows the golf club with the fastener area in proper position.

Referring now to the drawings, the present invention is illustrated as applied to a golf club. In FIG. 1, the handle or grip portion of the club shaft 9 is provided with a separable fastener surface 11 which may be in the form of a shape of a special fabric bonded to the grip 10. A glove 5 is similarly provided with a separable fastener surfaces 12-14 adhered to the appropriate palm and finger portions of the glove by an adhesive or by other means such as stitching. The separable fastener areas 11 and 1214 are pieces of a two-member flexible hook and loop fastener of the sort sold under the trademark Velcro by the Velcro Corporation, 681 Fifth Ave, New York, NY. Such a fastener consists of a pair of fabric tapes, one of which is provided with hook-like elements formed of a flexible resilient monofilament, and the other of which has a pile fabric face to provide loop elements. Pressing these fabric components together produces an intermeshing or locking of the hooks with the pile loops to provide a bond of surprising strength in shear. Peeling the components apart readily separates the bond. In the present invention, either of the hooks or loop components may be associated with the handle provided that the other is associated with the glove. My preference is that the handle be provided with a shaped area of the loop pile component and the glove provided with shaped pieces of the hook surfaced material.

The use of such separable fabric fasteners extending over broad areas of a handle and gloove is known. Such broad area application assures adhesion but does not offer any guidance toward a proper alignment and further presents an undesirable bulk or stiffness in the glove and interferes with the grip of the ungloved hand. The present invention overcomes these defects by providing special shapes in particular locations to assure proper grip without interference or bulk.

Turning now to FIG. 2, the shapes and locations of separable fastener areas 12-14 are illustrated. It is my preference to apply the hooked fabric component to the glove. This is accomplished by sewing the periphery of each adhesively attached area. The shape of the palm area 12 is designed to provide adequite hook area with out causing undesirable folds when the hand is closed about the club grip. The lower edge f-g of area 12, proximate the fingers, is terminated so as to lie along the major transverse fold line or crease of skin present in the human palm. The wider portion 1 of area 12 overlies the heel of the hand. The shape of the upper edge g-f proximate the 'wrist is configured to merge the heel area with the termination g of the leading edge ,f-g near the index fingers. Such shape provides adequate hook area under the most effective gripping areas of the hand without spanning creases in the hand thus reducing buckling or wrinkling of the fastener covered areas of the glove. Separable fastener areas 13 and 14 are located at the fourth and fifth finger tips to promote an effective grip by these lesser strength fingers. As can be seen in FIGS. 1 and 2, the majority of the glove surface is free of areas of separable fasteners. This allows for retention of much of the feel of a conventional golf club and grip.

FIG. 4 shows the shape of the separable fastener piece which is to be adhered to golf club grip. It should be noted that line x-x is an imaginary line which will be parrallel to the axis of the golf club shaft 9 when the grip portion 11 is aflixed to the glove. Line xx passes through the diagonally opposite corners b, d of piece 11. Edge a-b and edge dc are parallel to each other and perpendicular to line x-x. Edge b-c is a straight line lying at angle 2 with respect to line xx. Edge ad is a fair curve. When piece 11 is adhesively secured to the club grip 10. as illustrated in FIGS, line xx of piece 11 is coincident with line v-y which is parallel to the longitudinal axis of the golf club and also is in the plane of club face 8. Edges a-b and c-d lie along circles on the circumference of the grip 10. Edge b-c lies along the slow spiral about the grip 10.

Proper alignment of the golf club and the users hand is accomplished by placing the straight portion of leading edge fg of glove area 12 in alignment with edge b-c of the grip area. When the gloved hand is wrapped about the grip, the wider heel portion of glove area 12 contacts the broader upper end of grip area 11 and the narrower portion near g of glove area 12 overlies the narrower portion of the grip area 11. Thus, all of glove area 12 overlies grip area 11 and the straight edge of glove area 12 is aligned with edge bc of grip area 11. When the gloved hand is wrapped about the grip after positioning in accordance with the above, the fourth and fifth finger areas 3 and 14 overlie portions of the grip area 11 near corner a. With all of these areas in contact, an excellent adhesion of the separable fastener area is accomplished.

During golf, there are occasions where it is desired to shorten the grip which means that the left hand is moved somewhat downward toward the club head 7 from the conventional position illustrated in FIG. 3. Because of the shape of piece 11, advancing the left hand towards the club head and effecting alignment of the leading edge of area 12 with edge 11-0 of area 11 will cause the hand to be rotated slightly from the conventional position. Rotation of the hand as the grip is shortened is desired. Thus, the shape of area 11 promotes proper alignment of the hand in either conventional or shortened positions.

The right or ungloved hand primarily contracts the conventional gripping surfaces of grip 10. Area 11 is almost entirely covered by the gloved left hand. Those areas not covered lie in a position with respect to the ungloved hand which are not important in the grip of that hand. By limiting the regions of grip 10 and the glove 5 which are provided with the separable fastener areas above described, the feel of the grip remains very nearly that of a conventional club and glove. By providing a simple procedure for guiding the hand into proper alignment and by providing secure and slip proof association of the glove and club, reproducibility of a proper grip is assured. This reproducibility is of great value to beginners.

It is obvious that the invention can be modified for use by right or left hand golfers. The invention is illustrated and described for a right handed golfer. The invention is further useful to provide a secure grip for those incapable of normal grip strength because of physical infirmity, including loss of digits. The invention therefore may allow persons previously incapable to play golf, as well as allow others to carry out that activity more effectively.

Although the invention has been illustrated with a complete glove, it is apparent that a partial glove, or a glove having no finger covering portions may be used.

It is apparent that edge 12-0 of the fastener portion to be affixed to the handle is determinative of the grip because edge bc is aligned with the straight edge fg of the glove portion 12. The manner of gripping may be altered to suit the user by changing the acute angle e to suit the users preference. Fastener areas 11, with angles e appropriate for a particular user, may be reliably located on the plurality of grips in a set by aligning the line xx which is a diagonal through corners b and d with the shaft axis and placing xx in the plane of the club face.

I claim:

1. The combination comprising a golf club including a grip and a glove adapted to be worn on the hand, portions of said glove and a portion of said grip having cooperating separable fastener material components which interlock to bind the separable fastener material components securely when pressed together face-to-face, one of the said separable fastener material components having a large number of hooks of flexible resilient material projecting therefrom, and the other of said separable fastener material components having a large number of loops of flexible resilient material projecting therefrom, said hooks being operable to engage said loops when said material components are pressed together face-to-face and thereby to cause said glove to cling tenaciously to said grip in a non-slip connection, the separable fastener component comprising said grip portion being configured and attached in a location on said grip such that one edge of said grip portion lies at an acute angle with respect to an imaginary line which extends both parallel to the longitudinal axes of the golf club grip and shaft and in the plane of the club face, the separable fastener component comprising said glove portion being attached to the palm of the glove and being configured and located so as to minimally interfere with closure of the hand about the golf club grip and having a relatively straight edge portion extending generally parallel and proximate to the major transverse crease of the human hand such that alignment of said glove portion edge congruent with said one edge of the grip portion will promote proper grip position.

2. The combination of claim 1 wherein the separable fastener having loops is affixed to the glove and the component having loops is affixed to the golf club grip.

3. The combination of claim 2 wherein additional areas of the separable fastener component having hooks are afiixed to at least one of the glove fingers at a location near its tip and cooperable with the grip component.

4. The combination of claim 1 wherein the angle of said grip fastener component edge is selected to promote rotation of the gloved hand into proper position when the gripping of the club is shortened by moving the gloved hand toward the club head and aligning the glove straight edge portion with the grip fastener edge portion.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 586,373 7/1897 Walker. 1,573,612 2/1926 Johnston 273165 2,258,999 10/1941 Nunn 273166 X 2,293,347 8/1942 Lindfelt 2159 2,484,762 10/ 1949 Strazza 27316 5 3,368,811 2/1968 Finney 273166 X 2,270,882 1/1942 Link 273166 FOREIGN PATENTS 547,946 9/1942 Great Britain. 261,786 7/ 1963 Australia.

GEORGE J. MARLO, Primary Examiner R; J. APLEY, Assistant Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R.

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